This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

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It's very exciting to see new research that shows why MS exists and if there is a possibiltity to do something about it.

I find it very sad that people here don't understand why a group might be excited at the thought of treatment. CCSVI has worked for some people,and more research is required. Why people like to shoot to bits the enthusiasm that a group of sufferers have in short supply makes no sense to me.

PCakes. I read about this in a different newspaper (with a much better wrttten headline). I do not believe that this researcher was actually researching anything to do with MS. She was studying a specific set of genes when it was observed that if this gene was turned off it had a specific effect on mice that was similar to the effect of MS (and other diseases) in people.

This is your classisc accidental discovery. It remains to be proven to have any real significance for MS BUT it is a path well worth following. We can never have too much solid scientific research. There is no telling what they might learn.

Although I posted this in the gene forum I had the same thought. I mean at this point gene therapy has not proven very effective in clinical trials so I am not sure what therapeutic potential this finding holds. My guess is that if it is true that this gene is implicated in MS it should provide some real insight into the million dollar question. What is the trigger for MS?

Since this is a CCSVI forum, I'd have to say that if this checks out, the suppression of the gene should cause venous malformations or CCSVI will have to be an adjunct to MS rather than a cause.

Or perhaps there are two types of MS - MS Classic and MS CCSVI. If this is the missing gene link and it's unrelated to CCSVI, then that's depressing. How do you add a missing gene? Anyway, these are interesting times in the field of MS research.

Jugular wrote:Since this is a CCSVI forum, I'd have to say that if this checks out, the suppression of the gene should cause venous malformations or CCSVI will have to be an adjunct to MS rather than a cause.

I don't think so, because there are already genes that have been found that link CCSVI/MS to vascular malformations AND genes that link MS to immune abnormalities. The way for CCSVI to still be causal is that it is what causes the slow blood flow, deoxygenation, and deposition of iron, as well as reflux-caused weakening of the endothelium and increase in adhesion molecules that transport from one side of the BBB to the other, and this creates a situation where the immune system is triggered and cleans up. If the immune system has specific genetically-caused abnormal responses, it may over-do that clean-up or behave oddly in whatever way (including getting sensitized to myelin? Maybe...). But CCSVI is still the causal agent, without CCSVI the immune system would not be cleaning up in the brain and be tempted to run amok if that is what it does in some people.

Jugular wrote:Since this is a CCSVI forum, I'd have to say that if this checks out, the suppression of the gene should cause venous malformations or CCSVI will have to be an adjunct to MS rather than a cause.

How do you add a missing gene?

I think CCSVI and this finding (if it has any linkage with MS) are completely in the opposite direction. I think CCSVI believes neurological issues arising out of venous congestion while this study seems to suggest that gene is directly involved in nerve malformation (kind of local issue). Even though the article links it with MS, I really doubt if this has any link with MS.

Please see "gene therapy" on wikipedia on how genes can be added/corrected etc.

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it
- Max Planck

I guess Cece, that it remains to be conclusively proven that CCSVI is not also an effect of MS that simply makes a bad situation worse by the mechanism you described. To be honest I don't really care as I have seen enough to convince me that treating stenosed veins produces a huge benefit. Like I said before, should I have this procedure, the first thing I'd do with my new CCSVI superpowers is punch in the face the first person who suggests that I'm some flake having a placebo effect.

I think CCSVI and this finding (if it has any linkage with MS) are completely in the opposite direction. I think CCSVI believes neurological issues arising out of venous congestion while this study seems to suggest that gene is directly involved in nerve malformation (kind of local issue). Even though the article links it with MS, I really doubt if this has any link with MS.

Please see "gene therapy" on wikipedia on how genes can be added/corrected etc.

Thanks. I did as you suggested. I think we are a long way away to being able to genetically modify humans in such a precise way. So I doubt we'll be seeing such therapies anytime soon. I don't think I would be too open to becoming a GMO.

I'd hate to have my children seized by a company like Monsanto for failing to pay a license fee.

Jugular wrote:Thanks. I did as you suggested. I think we are a long way away to being able to genetically modifying humans in such a precise way. So I doubt we'll be seeing such therapies anytime soon. I don't think I would be too open to becoming a GMO.

I'd hate to have my children seized by a company like Monsanto for failing to pay a license fee.

Exactly, Jugular. I did not say it since some people might not like it.

There was a time when I was convinced that gene has a role to play in MS (I think it still does except that suspect gene has shifted from immune to venous development). Having followed it for sometime now, I am in a way a bit disillusioned, that not much headway has happened in this so far.

Back to usual twist - there is a thinking that gene therapy is having similar issues we see in CCSVI. Not much interest from players who have money to fund. Probably one of the reason is gene therapy can lead to cure (as pure as one can see). I am not sure if this is the case but some of the top of the line fundamental research in gene therapy is funded by a charity organization organization (see Singer Institute in UK). That pains me a lot.

I really wish someone like Dr. Craig venter would stop running behind fancy things like artificial life and start working on immediate issues like Cancer etc.

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it
- Max Planck

This study seems to suggest that this gene regulates myelin formation. By turning off the gene, the researches noted that the myelin became deformed, causing mobility problems. I'm not even sure why only MS is mentioned in this story when there are so many other myelin-based disaases that could have been mentioned. In fact, this story puts into question even the autoimmune theory.

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